


How to Make a Pillow (A Guide by Vriska Serket)

by equivocalEternity



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Humor, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Meteorstuck, Retcon Timeline, dave and vriska bond, dave has no clue what's going on, dave is shocked, dave is sweetheart no matter how hard he tries to hide it, discussion of injuries and stitches, it's davekat but the focus is mostly on dave and vriska, mentioned Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, mentioned Vriska Serket & Terezi Pyrope, they're both slightly horrifed, vriska can be nice, vriska is helpful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 02:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13354779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/equivocalEternity/pseuds/equivocalEternity
Summary: “Well,” Vriska said, and Dave wasn’t looking at her, hadn’t turned around when she came in, but he could hear the vicious smile just from that one word. This was going to be a shitstorm the size of goddamn Texas.Vriska helps Dave make a present. She's actually helpful, surprisingly.





	How to Make a Pillow (A Guide by Vriska Serket)

“That looks dumb.”

Dave sighed. _Deep breaths, Strider,_ he thought to himself. He guessed Vriska had gotten bored of gal pale-ing around with Terezi all day. He would actually be happy about that, if it had been Terezi who’d found him, since his ‘dumb idea’ was making a plush, which she had assloads of. He would’ve asked Terezi, or Kanaya, but the latter was busy doing shit with Rose, and the former was preoccupied with Vriska. Or so he thought. He hated being wrong.

“Hey.” There, that was chill. He was chill, he was cool, it was all good. He could do this. He could totally handle Vriska for however long she felt like pestering him.

“Did you not hear me? I said, that looks dumb, but what I really meant was, ‘that looks fucking idiotic, dumbass, what are you even trying to accomplish?’ I was being polite.”

He was totally chill.

“I heard you, spiderbitch, I was just tryin’ to remember where I asked for your opinion.”

Shit.

“Oh?”

Double shit; she was pissed, and there was no Terezi to calm her down. Dave was, in a word, fucked.

“Well,” Vriska said, and Dave wasn’t looking at her, hadn’t turned around when she came in, but he could hear the vicious smile just from that one word. This was going to be a shitstorm the size of goddamn Texas.

“I was _going_ to offer some advice, but I guess our big, heroic, Knight of Time doesn’t need help with a troll gift from an _actual troll,_ silly me.” She probably flipped her hair, and Dave hated it when she did that, he could not fucking stand it. “You give him that and he’ll think it’s an insult.”

Well shit, now he had to listen. The last thing he wanted was for Karkat to think Dave was mocking him, or something. Dave turned around to look at Vriska, who, as expected, wore the smuggest fucking grin.

“Alright, enlighten me. What should I be making, oh wise one?”

Vriska scoffed. “First of all, something that looks like you actually give a shit.” She pointed at the toy in Dave’s hands. “I know that being ‘too cool to care’ is your shtick, but if I gave that to Terezi, she would break up with me.”

“Hey, fuck you, I give a shit—and don’t compare this to you and Terezi. That’s not what this is. It’s just, like, a bro thing.”

Vriska raised an eyebrow. “Listen, I frankly could not care less if you two got your heads out of your waste chutes or not, but if you have a falling out Karkat will go mope at Terezi, which I can’t have. So, I have generously taken it upon myself to save us all from that fate by helping you not suck. You’re welcome.”

Dave considered his options. On the one hand, he really wanted to tell Vriska to get fucked, but on the other hand…she had a point. He was trying his hardest, but his sewing skills were mostly medical, with a side of fixing holey clothes. The plush looked nothing like Karkat’s lusus, and, loath as he was to admit it, Vriska probably had a point. He was pretty sure Karkat wouldn't think it was shitty on purpose, but...if he did, he would be so hurt. Dave couldn’t risk that. He knew how much Karkat had cared about his lusus; they had had enough movie night couch talks that it was clear losing his caretaker had hit him pretty hard. It was one of the reasons Dave had decided on a crabdad plush as a solution for Karkat’s insomnia.

Dave sighed. Vriska smugged, smugly.

“…Fine. Sure, help away, it’s not like you could fuck it up any worse than it already is. Shit looks like Picasso took up alien taxidermy, we’re in his ugly period, known for being ugly as fuck.”

“Ugh, shut up,” Vriska said, sitting down next to Dave and taking the plush from him. “God, this thing is a mess. Your stiches are surprisingly un-shitty, though. How did you manage to get them that neat and still suck so much?”

“Years of fixing holes, in shirts and in Striders. Well. One Strider, specifically.” Dave gestured to himself. “This–this Strider. Me.”

For the first time Dave could remember, Vriska looked interested in what he was saying. It was uncomfortable.

“No shit? Like, you stitched up your own wounds? I didn’t think you humans were that tough.”

“Hm.” Dave really didn't feel like talking about it, especially not with Vriska.

“Does that mean you actually saw combat before the game? John really made it seem like humans were squishy, delicate wimps who lead delicate, wimpy lives. I’m almost impressed.”

“Yeah, I’m just that cool. Can we get to the part where you start helping?”

"Fine, sorry for being a nosy bitch, I guess.” Vriska shrugged, like she was unaffected, but she looked a little hurt, and Dave felt sort of bad. He hated Vriska, but Terezi seemed to think there was something likeable about her, and it had sounded like she legitimately wanted to talk. 

“Nah, it’s chill, I just want to get this done before Karkat comes looking for me,” Dave said, trying not to sound like he was apologizing. “I’ve been working on this for a while, and there’s only so long I can go AWOL before he gets stressed, y’know? Don’t want him to freak out, think I’m avoiding him or anything.”

Vriska snorted. “Yeah, then you’d have to calm him down, I’m sure you’d hate that.”

“I—Shut up, it’s not a quadrant thing! Bro code, alright? I can’t leave a bro upset.”

“Okay, dork.” Still grinning infuriatingly, Vriska waved around the plush, which vaguely resembled a felt cauliflower. “So, this is unsalvageable. You don't have a pattern, it seems like, so you might as well scrap the entire thing and start over, unless you want to keep it human sentimental purposes or whatever.”

That… that kinda sucked to hear. Dave had worked for hours on that, for all that he had been flying blind, and he had known, really, that it wasn’t fixable, but it still seemed unfair.

“So, what, I alchemize more fabric and pull a pattern out of my ass? Karkat’s lusus was pretty one-of-a-kind, as far as I can tell.” Vriska frowned. “Wow, way to be defeatist. For one thing, we could ask around the dream bubbles, see if anyone could help. But that’s irrelevant, because we’re not making a plush.”

What?

“What?” Dave shifted to face Vriska fully. “If you didn’t want to help, you didn’t have to offer. C’mon, dude.”

“God, don’t look so pathetic!” Vriska flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Of course I’m helping, we’re just not making a plush. That’s way too complicated for a beginner, even one with as neat stitches as yours.”

“Was. Was that a compliment?” Dave was still confused about the first part of the sentence, and a little pissed, but the idea the Vriska would give a genuine compliment left him reeling.

“Yeah, of course?” Vriska looked mildly affronted. “Look, I know I’m a bitch, but believe it not, I can be nice when I think people deserve it.”

“Huh. Okay.” Dave shrugged. He still didn’t like her, but he supposed it wasn’t so weird for Terezi to enjoy spending time with her.

“…Wait, that’s it? You’re not going say something snarky about oink beasts flying or something?”

“Nah, man. I still think you’re an asshole, but I’m not going to, like, shit on you, if you aren’t all the time.” He probably would’ve, when they first got on the meteor, but he’d gotten better about not putting up a front instead of dealing with shit.

“Humans are weird,” Vriska said. She shifted, looking almost vulnerable. “Anyway, let’s get back on topic.”

“Shoot,” Dave said.

“So, we’re not making a plush, because it’s too hard, and, like you said, we’re on a time limit. So instead, we’re making a pillow, quick and easy.”

Dave raised an eyebrow. “A pillow? We can alchemize those easily, like, we have a billion already. It doesn’t seem very, fuck, I don’t know, thoughtful, or anything.”

Vriska rolled her eyes, putting her arm around his shoulder. He tried to shake it off, but she didn’t budge, so he gave up.

“It amazes me sometimes, how dumb everyone else on this meteor is,” Vriska said. “The whole point is, you made him something yourself. You know how sappy he is, it’s gross. You make him a pillow, he’ll probably burst into tears.”

She had a point. If Dave wanted Karkat to get more sleep, a pillow wasn’t a bad idea, all things considered. Karkat was pretty sentimental, and a pillow was probably more useful than a poorly made toy anyway.

“Alright, you’re the spiderboss,” Dave said. “Let’s do this thing. Let’s make this—”

“No.” Vriska glared at him.

Dave mimed zipping his lips shut.

“That’s better,” Vriska said. “You should stay like that, it’ll be way more pleasant for the rest of us. Now, let’s stop fucking around and actually make the damn pillow.”

Twenty minutes later (or the meteor equivalent of twenty minutes, since time got wonky as fuck when they first started passing through the dream bubbles), the pillow was finished. Dave felt sort of proud, looking at it. It hadn’t taken long to make; once they stopped arguing over what the design should be, and alchemized the fabric, it was just a matter of sewing it up and stuffing it, which wasn’t hard.

Now, though, Dave had to find Karkat, and Vriska had made it very clear she was going to be there for the gift-giving.Dave was not looking forward to that. 

“God, where even is he? It feels like we’ve been looking forever, this is boring.”

Dave sighed. Vriska hadn’t been that bad, for Vriska, but he was ready to be Vriska-less by now.

“Dave? Fuck, there you are, I’ve been looking all over for you!” Karkat came running towards them down the hall. “I was calling you, but you wouldn’t respond, I told you to get rid of the stupid fucking smuppet ass.”

“Hey, Karkat, sorry, I was working on something and I got caught up,” Dave said, trying to mask his nerves with nonchalance. “Like, massive levels of caught, call me Moby Dick and the the—thing, shit, anyway, call it Captain Ahab. Only, I think Ahab dies? Which I guess makes sense if I’m free now—”

“Dave. Shut the fuck up.”

“Sorry.” Dave fidgeted. He had butterflies in his stomach, like a fucking cliché, but he couldn’t help it. What if Karkat didn’t like it? Dave knew he would, rationally, if only for the fact it was a gift, but the thought remained.

“Oh my god, just give it to him already!” Vriska shoved Dave a bit, rolling her eyes. “He’s gonna love it, stop being a wiggler!”

“Love what?” Karkat looked at Dave in confusion, but there was a hint of excitement. “Dave, did you—did you get me something?”

Welp. Time to bite the bullet. Dave decaptchalogued the pillow and thrust it at Karkat.

“I—made it,” He said. “It’s—I noticed you were, like, having trouble sleeping again, during movie nights, and shit, and I thought—fuck, I—do you like it?”

“Dave.” Karkat’s voice was suspiciously watery. “What the fuck, I love it.”

Dave sagged in relief. “You do?”

“You shit scraping nook fart, of fucking course I do! God, is that, are those both our aspect symbols?”

They were; after a shitload of deliberation, Dave had chosen a repeating pattern of the time and blood symbols for the front. It seemed fitting, at the time, but now it felt cheesy.

“Uh, yeah,” Dave said. “It—I figured, we’re both knights, it seemed like a good, I don’t know, a good idea? You don’t have to use it if you don’t want, it’s chill, but—”

“Are you joking? Come on, I was looking for you for movie night anyway, I can use it right now. God, it’s so soft!” Karkat grabbed Dave’s arm, tugging him along.

“Don’t you think you’re forgetting something?”

Dave and Karkat both turned to look at Vriska, who was standing with her arms akimbo, smirking wildly.

“Oh, shit, yeah. Um. Thanks, Vriska. You were…you really helped, I owe you one.” It felt weird to say it, but it was true.

“You bet your nook you do! Honestly, without me you’d still be stuck on your first shitty mess of a gift. You’re lucky I was feeling so generous.” Vriska tossed her hair (and Dave still hated when she did that, so, so much), and started walking away. “I’m bored of you losers now, so I’m going to find my moirail. Enjoy your lame movie!”

“What the fuck was that about?” Karkat asked, as he and Dave started off down the hallway. “Did she really help you?”

“Yeah man, it was actually pretty cool. We should hang out with Terezi more, Vriska’s not that terrible if you humor her.”

“If you say so.” Karkat squeezed the pillow, and smiled. “So, I know what movie we should watch.”

Dave grinned. “Bet it’ll be shitty.”

Karkat screeched indignantly, geared up for a rant, and he and Dave bantered happily as they walked through the meteor.


End file.
